Drop and give me 20 squared for college prep

April 28, 2014

Updated May 11, 2014 7:28 p.m.

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Stephanie Benitez, 18, a senior at Santa Ana High School, gets help from math teacher Ricardo Guerrero during Math Boot Camp. The after-school program is a joint effort between Santa Ana College and Santa Ana Unified School District to provide high school students with an intensive math course that prepares them to test into higher levels of math in college.
LEONARD ORTIZ
,
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

1 of 5

Stephanie Benitez, 18, a senior at Santa Ana High School, gets help from math teacher Ricardo Guerrero during Math Boot Camp. The after-school program is a joint effort between Santa Ana College and Santa Ana Unified School District to provide high school students with an intensive math course that prepares them to test into higher levels of math in college.
LEONARD ORTIZ
,
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Santa Ana High School seniors Daisy Perez, 18, left, and Jazmin Franco, 17, work on math problems during Math Boot Camp. The after-school program is a joint effort between Santa Ana College and Santa Ana Unified School District to provide high school students with an intensive math course to help them test into higher levels of math in college.
LEONARD ORTIZ
,
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

1 of 5

Santa Ana High School seniors Daisy Perez, 18, left, and Jazmin Franco, 17, work on math problems during Math Boot Camp. The after-school program is a joint effort between Santa Ana College and Santa Ana Unified School District to provide high school students with an intensive math course to help them test into higher levels of math in college.
LEONARD ORTIZ
,
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

1 of 5

Santa Ana High School senior Jazmin Franco, 17, works on math problems during Math Boot Camp. Santa Ana Unified School District and Santa Ana College have partnered to provide high school students with an intensive math course that prepares them to test into higher levels of math, which can shave off up to a year of college.
LEONARD ORTIZ
,
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Stephanie Benitez, 18, a senior at Santa Ana High School, gets help from math teacher Ricardo Guerrero during Math Boot Camp. The after-school program is a joint effort between Santa Ana College and Santa Ana Unified School District to provide high school students with an intensive math course that prepares them to test into higher levels of math in college.
LEONARD ORTIZ
,
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

What is Math Boot Camp?

The two-week pilot program was created by Santa Ana College Math Center coordinator George Sweeney to prepare high school students for a college placement test. He and college administrators hope that if the students on the cusp of passing this test can place into higher level math classes, they won't have to spend a semester or two in remedial math classes. Students who don't have to take those classes are much more likely to transfer or complete their degrees within six years, state data shows.

Community college completion across the state

Fewer students in California's community colleges are completing their degrees or transferring to four-year universities, according to an annual scorecard that tracks students over six years.

The drop in completion could be a consequence of years of budget cuts, which resulted in fewer course offerings at most community colleges, according tothe California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office, which released scorecards for each of its 112 community colleges April 15.

On average, about 52 percent of the state's community college students did not complete their degrees or transfer after six years by 2012-13. These students might have had difficulty transferring or completing their programs because of a shortage of high-demand classes like English and math, college officials said.

Here's a look at the percentages of students who did transfer within six years at other Orange County community colleges:

Coastline Community College: 52.8 percent

Cypress College:46.7 percent

Fullerton College: 49.8 percent

Golden West College:52.1 percent

Irvine Valley College:62.7 percent

Orange Coast College:61.5 percent

Saddleback College: 57 percent

Santiago Canyon College: 55.7 percent

Santa Ana College:46 percent

Statewide average:48.1 percent

Source: California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office

By the numbers: Higher education in Santa Ana

3,344: The number of seniors graduating from Santa Ana Unified this school year

31: The percentage of graduating high school seniors that will attend Santa Ana College next school year

167: The number of Santa Ana Unified students currently enrolled at Cal State Fullerton

49: The percentage of Santa Ana Unified seniors who tested into intermediate algebra or higher at Santa Ana College in 2012

Source: Santa Ana Unified School District

Jazmin Franco is wasting no time finishing her college degree, even though she’s still in high school.

The Santa Ana High School senior normally works in the school’s front office after school. But because she wants to shave off time at community college next year, she took an intensive two-week course after school that prepares students to test out of college math classes.

Going to the class meant making up her work hours during lunch and before school, she said.

“I’ve been here since 6:40 this morning,” Franco said, as the clock hands neared 5:30 p.m. “So it’s been a long day.”

Franco plans on attending Santa Ana College in the fall so she can break the trend facing Latino students statistically less likely to receive a diploma. If she finishes, she’ll be the first in her family to graduate college.

Santa Ana College offered the course to about 70 Santa Ana high school students admitted to its early decision program. The so-called “Math Boot Camp” refreshes these students’ memories on the algebra that will appear on college placement tests.

Scoring just a few points higher on the the placement tests could shave off up to a year at Santa Ana College – an expense that reaches about $11,000 for the average student living at home, according to the college’s estimated cost of attendance.

If students score high enough on the entrance placement test, they won’t have to retake the beginning classes they need to transfer or complete their degrees.

“If you don’t come here, you get to college and you get left out – you lose part of the experience,” said Santa Ana High School senior Daniel Martinez who is among more than 1,000 Santa Ana Unified students who likely will attend Santa Ana College after high school.

The last time Martinez saw these equations was almost four years ago when he was a freshman.

To re-teach the concepts, Santa Ana College Math Center coordinator George Sweeney uses a program from the same company that publishes the college’s textbooks, Pearson Publishing. The program is almost entirely computerized, with online tutorials and tests that provide pop-up explanations for wrong answers.

Students click through the tutorials and periodic quizzes, scribbling on blank sheets of paper that quickly fill up as they work through their math equations. As students pass more quizzes, the computer program narrows down the concepts they need to spend more time with.

“Two or three strategies is easier than taking a whole course,” said Santa Ana College math teacher Richard Guerrero, who roams the room to answer questions students have after reviewing the online tutorials.

Since so many Santa Ana Unified students attend Santa Ana College, the district and college have formed a partnership to make higher education more attainable for students statistically less likely to attend college after high school. As part of it, all students from Santa Ana High School are guaranteed admittance into the college.

The newest program in that partnership is the Math Boot Camp. It’s still in the pilot phase with about 70 participating students from Santa Ana, Godinez Fundamental and Century high schools. Before launching the boot camp, the college tested the effectiveness of the refresher course on veterans at the college.

About 60 percent of the veterans improved their scores by at least 40 percent after taking the course, according to the college.

Besides the potential cost-saving benefits, coming into college prepared with the skills needed to pass classes improves students’ chances of finishing college. The California Community College’s Chancellor’s Office uses a six-year term to track all students through their time in the community college system.

Santa Ana College students who come into college with the skills they need for college-level classes are about twice as likely to complete their degrees within six years compared with students who aren’t prepared, according to a scorecard of the college from the chancellor’s office.

The scorecard found that Santa Ana College had one of the lowest percentages of students who transferred or completed their degrees within six years compared with other California community colleges. Because many of the students at the college come from lower-income families, they often must balance work and school more than most other students, said Sara Lundquist, vice president of student services for Santa Ana College.

She also noted Santa Ana College’s demographics -- almost 60 percent of the students are Latino. Across California, community colleges with a higher percentage of Latino students have lower than average completion rates. Census data in 2011 found that 16 percent of Latinos completed an associate’s degree or higher, compared to about 48 percent of the country’s white population.

“Those students are working more hours, and have more distractions to pull them away from the time they might spend on homework or in study sessions,” Lundquist said.

Lundquist said the completion rates are one of the major reasons college administrators and faculty wanted to start the boot camp.

Many of the students, including Santa Ana High School senior Gerardo Peralta, will be the first in their families to attend college. Peralta hopes getting through the boot camp and testing into a higher level math class also will make him the first in his family to graduate from college.

“You’re going to have a bunch of classes when you get to SAC,” Peralta said, sitting next to his girlfriend, Ana Vargas, also in the boot camp. “And I want to be successful.”

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